Separated From You
by akinosora01
Summary: Complete. Sesshomaru/Kagome. 1,000-word drabble. Kagome is, yet again, a victim of Fate, and separated from the one she loves.


Title: Separated From You

By: akinosora01

Category: Inuyasha

Status: Complete

Chapters: 1

Author's Note:

So, let it not be said that I'm not rusty, because I know it, everyone knows it, and it's clear in my writing—not to mention that this was written at three in the morning. (Did I mention that it's normal for me to write at this time?) It's also a very, _very_ time since I've written anything for the Inuyasha fandom.

Bad writing at an attempt for a good idea? No idea…or it could be just bad writing. Otherwise than that, I didn't like the title, but I couldn't think of anything else at the moment.

Warnings: Canon Divergent, Drama, disjointed writing

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

_Separated from You_

At first, she's in shock.

Blinking at the sharp sunlight, the smells of the city—gas, people, pollution—drifts across her nose, alerting her that _she isn't where she's supposed to be_.

Or is she?

She hears the dim shouts of her mother, brother, grandfather, behind her, and thinks, _I am not supposed to be here._

And yet, she is.

As her mind goes numb, her mind is only cognizant of one person.

_Sesshomaru_.

)))))))

And then, she's in denial.

Whenever she has the chance, she goes to the old well, deep within the shrine, and jumps. While she has become a great deal more nimble—traipsing all over Feudal Japan is good practice—she still ends up in a constricting cast.

(But that doesn't stop her from trying to jump down the well again.)

While her family tries to convince that it's for the best, that it wasn't like she didn't know this could happen, Kagome just looks through them and says cheerfully that the well would open the next day, just you see, so everything will be all right.

True to her words, Kagome hobbles out in her crutches, and tries to jump again.

)))))))

It is some time when she goes through her denial stage, and, instead, decides to get angry.

How _dare_ the Shikon no Tama do this to her, after all she's been through? To piece back the dratted jewel—now just a harmless sphere hanging off her neck—she went through being attacked, kidnapped, possessed, confronted by _gods_ of all beings…has she missed anything?

When she has done nothing to stop fate, Fate decided to make her dance to its whims, and destroy what future potential of a relationship she could've had, after the heartbreak of a first love for an oblivious hanyou whose eyes were always looking elsewhere.

Even as she rages against the heavens, and of her fate, there is no response for her.

However, her anger quickly dissipates, because with her, anger never lasts very long. She shuts herself in her room with the curtains drawn and the door locked from the inside. Cajoling from family and friends, promises of her favorite food, even threats to break down her door aren't enough to get her to come out.

And when Souta, now a man, does break down with his brute strength, everyone sees Kagome on the bed, clutching a snow-white kimono with unfamiliar crimson crests. She doesn't register their intrusion, and stares ahead into space, tears spilling down her cheeks and dripping onto the white silk.

What everyone isn't prepared for is the unchanging expression of utter _heartbreak_ on her normally cheerful face.

)))))))

_It'll be all right, it's just a phase, she'll be back to normal in just a few days._

Despite Grandfather's reassurances, Souta isn't so sure. Kagome still has yet to come out of her room, and it's been a couple of weeks already.

"'Kaa-san," he asks, "I thought that Inuyasha was Kagome's boyfriend."

"Yes," his mother agrees, wiping her hands on her apron and joining him at the kitchen table.

"Then why was Kagome holding a nobleman's kimono?"

His mother hums in response. While she, too, is curious, she cannot help but feel a little bit appreciative that her son's college classes aren't going to waste. (At first she had balked at his choice of classes—historical Japanese fashion?) "I wonder, too," she admits. "It certainly isn't a kimono that Inuyasha would wear, I suppose."

Both are quiet, and contemplate the ways that their Kagome, daughter and sister, has changed.

)))))))

Kagome is perfectly content to stay where she is, curled up in her bed with his kimono wrapped around her. She cares not that worried footsteps sound outside her door, and hushed voices voicing worry.

She mourns for lost time, lost opportunities. She would never be able to see Sango and Miroku finally wed, nor the birth of their children. She would never again bicker with Inuyasha, and fuss over Shippo, who, despite having grown up a little, still likes to have her mother him. And…and…

She would never again see Sesshomaru, the villain-who-is-not-quite-a-villain. She would never feel the excitement at the quiet companionship he grudgingly gives, or the _thump-thump_ flutter of her still-naïve heart whenever she sees his motionless alabaster figure in the moonlight. She will never again verbally spar with him whenever he says something she doesn't agree with, in always a laughing manner, and smile even more brilliantly at his not-smile. She grieves for him the most.

Sesshomaru was just starting to see her as something more than a mere human, a tentative ally.

Suddenly, she can see Sesshomaru in the back of her mind, with his pretty, shining hair ruffling in the breeze, so still in his white kimono marked with his colors—

_"Do not waste your time wallowing in self-pity, miko, it is unseemly,"_ she can imagine him saying, and that makes her laugh. Even in her thoughts he is as large as life.

So she picks herself up, wipes the tears off her face, and lives on.

)))))))))

I've decided that rather than writing a lengthy one-shot with a complete backstory, it'll be better to write a short drabble in snippets, with glimpses of what Sesshomaru and Kagome had germinating before her sudden disappearance.

Not sure if a sequel will be in the works—if there is a sequel, most likely a multi-chaptered one. How about all of you? What do you think?

Reviews—by users, both named and anonymous—are love!


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